September 15, 2011

By Ted Belman

Islamists’ Growing Sway Raises Questions for Libya says the NYT. And so it does but for the West also.

The growing influence of Islamists in Libya raises hard questions about the ultimate character of the government and society that will rise in place of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s autocracy. The United States and Libya’s new leaders say the Islamists, a well-organized group in a mostly moderate country, are sending signals that they are dedicated to democratic pluralism. They say there is no reason to doubt the Islamists’ sincerity.

But as in Egypt and Tunisia, the latest upheaval of the Arab Spring deposed a dictator who had suppressed hard-core Islamists, and there are some worrisome signs about what kind of government will follow. [..]

For an uprising that presented a liberal, Westernized face to the world, the growing sway of Islamists — activists with fundamentalist Islamic views, who want a society governed by Islamic principles — is being followed closely by the United States and its NATO allies.

The Times goes on to cite a number of people who remain hopeful yet note that “Yet an anti-Islamist, anti-Sallabi rally in Martyrs’ Square on Wednesday drew only a few dozen demonstrators.”

That says it all.

France has been working behind the scene for over a year to overthrow Gaddafi. When the revolt started, the West was quick to warn of Gaddafi induced massacres though there was little or no evidence of same. Those unfounded allegations were enough to get the OIS (I never understood why they wanted Gaddafi to be ousted.) to support a UN resolution mandating a no-fly zone over Libya. Pres Obama “lead from behind” and in a blink sent the US Army to do just that with the support of NATO. The no fly zone quickly morphed into aggressive action against Gaddafi’s troops on the ground and then even to bombing various military installations.

The US, Britain and France pleaded ignorance at first about who the rebels were and said they were trying to find out. In truth they knew and didn’t care. They recognized the rebels as the government of Libya long before it was appropriate under international law. They started providing them with weapons and money and even with boots on the ground.

This was a war of aggression orchestrate3d by the West under the guise of a Responsibility to Protect (R2P) UN resolution. This was an imperialist war if ever there was one.